Product help belongs where users get stuck

Product help should understand the screen someone is looking at and help them do the next step. Putting a help-center article inside a chat bubble still leaves the person reading it to work out how the instructions apply to their account.

Chat is a useful place to ask questions. We ship it ourselves. The opportunity is to give the assistant enough understanding of the product to guide someone through the work, then make that help available before they have to ask.

Reactive help, done well

Suppose someone asks, "How do I invite a teammate?" They could be on the home screen, already in team settings, or looking at an error after sending an invitation. The useful answer is different in each case.

An assistant that understands the product can guide them from where they are. It can point to the right control on screen, explain an error, and continue the walkthrough as they move through the task. They don't have to leave the product to read instructions and then remember them when they return.

That's what Frigade's generated tours are for. The agent learns the product by using it, then generates the steps for the user's task and current screen. With an enabled Skill, the assistant can also carry out a supported action from the conversation. You choose which actions it can run.

Documentation still supplies information a screen can't explain, such as a billing policy or the reason a setting exists. Product understanding adds the ability to connect that explanation to what the person can actually do in the application.

The bigger move: stop waiting to be asked

A chat button helps the person who opens it. Someone can also get stuck and leave without typing a question. We should make the same contextual help available at the moment the product gives us a reason to offer it.

Proactive nudges can start that conversation. For example, someone who has just upgraded might need help using a feature their account has gained access to. In Frigade, Suggestions let you target a prompt by URL or user property. You can offer a walkthrough on the relevant page instead of waiting for the customer to find the chat button and describe what they need.

An error can also be an entry point to help. A failed sync could include a "Help me fix this" button that opens the assistant with the error in context. The assistant can explain what went wrong and guide the person through the relevant settings. That connects the failure to a way forward without making the customer repeat the problem in a new conversation.

The walkthrough itself should fit the task. Someone trying to connect a CRM needs the steps for that connection, starting where they are now. Frigade can generate that guidance from what it has learned about the product; your team doesn't need to write a separate tour for every starting screen. A carefully authored onboarding tour still makes sense when you want everyone to see a particular introduction.

A small reframe

The same product knowledge can support a question in chat, a prompt above the assistant, or a walkthrough opened from an error. Each gives people a way to get help while they're doing the work.

Build for the person who asks a question and the person who never gets that far. As you improve the assistant's understanding of the product, use it in more of the places where customers need help.

Where should product help appear?

Product help should answer questions in context and also reach people before they ask. Combine an assistant that understands the current screen with targeted nudges, help inside error states, and walkthroughs generated for the task someone is trying to finish.